Hundreds of nights (2)

August 17th, 2008

Today, 17 August 2008, is the 54th birthday of Eric Johnson, the legendary guitarist from Austin, Texas. This is Heart’s Content’s second annual commemoration of Eric Johnson Day. Like last year, I’ll marathon all his CDs and his concert DVD.

If Chet Atkins calls Eric Johnson the number one rock guitarist in the world, then that’s really saying something.

Oh and the 14-page first part of Miao Diary Chapter 2 is under way. Deadline is Sunday, 31 August. I had to move it a week back because of other commitments, but this new deadline will hold.

Tsundere Carta 2008

August 16th, 2008

DEARS (To you that a smile is the always most wonderful) has released a product called Tsundere Carta 2008: Nihon no Natsu, Tsundere no Natsu. It’s a set of 45 cards, each with a hiragana in the corner, one card for each kana from あ to ん (kana with dots on them not included). Each card has a “situation” involving a tsundere girl as well as a word or two that begin with the given kana. For example, the card for ぬ (nu) has “nuigurumi” (stitched stuffed animal toy doll thing). (How do they do ん? There aren’t any Japanese words that begin with that kana.) The cards are illustrated by a number of professional moe artists, including one of my favorites, Kito of Sorahate (Images on Kito’s site may not be safe for work).

The cards are accompanied by a CD with a number of short tracks in which each kana’s situation and associated words are acted and read aloud by none other than J.C.Staff’s favorite voice actress, Rie Kugimiya. In an attempt to stop being typecast, Rie Kugimiya acts out tsunderes of a wide range of ages and breast sizes. You can hear her famous “Shut up shut up shut up” line and others in the voice samples at the bottom of the product page.

Of course, this product is available only in Japan. Those of us who live in the United States will have to settle for

or maybe

Showstopper

August 15th, 2008

Author and Ink have complained about the ending of Chapter 1. Upon further reflection, I have realized that using Jason’s “No way there’s a penis on this one” catchphrase is out of character (for both the characters and the atmosphere of the comic in general), even if it is Jason’s parents. And worse than that, it detracts from cuteness. It is not a slip that can just be overlooked. It is a critical failure that must be addressed before the project can continue.

Consider the show unstopped. (This will update the comic pages in previous posts.) For great justice.

They’re asking for it!

August 15th, 2008

Remember when the British asked for suggestions for a new flag for the United Kingdom? Well they got what they deserved. And now the British are asking for it again!

Everyone’s favorite British comic anthology, The DFC, is asking for suggestions as to what DFC actually stands for:

Does it stand for Dracula’s Favourite Cardigan? Or Dandelion Flavoured Crisps?

We have absolutely no idea! Luckily we’ve got Nick Sharratt on hand to come up with the answers! But what do you think it stands for? Email us your suggestions to: what (at) thedfc (dot) co (dot) uk. Even better if you can include a picture!

So yeah, I encourage everyone to send in your suggestions to The DFC! And don’t forget the pictures!


Trap Delicious Flat Chest is still delicious right?

(Miao Diary chapter 2 part 1 is going smoothly. I’ll be able to pin down a release date for it after the weekend.)

In your kingdom, guarding your spirits

August 12th, 2008

Just finished this novel.

Concentrated awesomeness in book form. I didn’t think any literature with a 30-year-old female main character (who actually looks 30) could impress a person who has been brainwashed by J.C.Staff. But a good story is a good story, whether it has moeblobs or not.

Read the rest of this entry »

Miao Diary (Chapter 1, Part 2)

August 10th, 2008

In my days at the University of Washington, I became somewhat well known in the department of Physics. I wasn’t all that good at Physics (my recent crushing defeat at the hands of the Physics GRE - 10,000 times more difficult than the General GRE, should be proof of that) and my reputation was built more on the pretty lab reports I would turn in. An art major is an art major, no matter what class he’s taking.

And what does Physics have to do with Miao Diary? Read on!

If you missed the first part of the chapter, click here.

And now, the conclusion of Chapter 1:

Page 15
Page 16
Page 17
Page 18
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24
Page 25

Now this is a “broken family.”

Magical Index reminds me of…

August 6th, 2008

…quite a number of other J.C.Staff shows.

I know it’s a stretch at times, and the fact that my mind is always high on J.C.Staff contributes to it, but whenever I read about the upcoming J.C.Staff fall series, To Aru Majutsu no Index (A Certain Magical Index), I have flashbacks to other J.C.Staff series. And that’s a good thing - good to the point that I’m breaking my promise to stop watching fansubs, all for the sake of Index, the cutest walking library ever.


Yes I will!

Read the rest of this entry »

New York City Weeaboo Chronicles

August 2nd, 2008

Hinano’s game is complete and you should play it. There are a few known “bugs” such as the half-assed backgrounds and the anatomical mistakes, but those are necessary sacrifices for speed (Hinano made this entire game in under four months) and they don’t detract from the quality of the story. Congratulations, Hinano. While Dorian and I muck around without getting anything done, you’ve set a goal for yourself and accomplished it, and your game has more finished art than Miao Diary and didn’t disintegrate like Heart’s Content. Good job.

(Ironically, it was Heart’s Content that originally inspired Hinano to make a visual novel… and now Heart’s Content is dead and her game inspired me to use Chicago as the setting for Miao Diary.)

Here’s the fanart I did a few months ago for this project. The official title is “RenAi Blogger”. Click for full image.

My paths through the few dating sims I have played are fairly predictable: I play making the decisions as though I was myself, rather than trying to reach a particular goal. This makes it hard for me to play a dating sim twice - I find it hard to make a choice that would be different from what I would choose myself. And despite my very loli-centric art style and anime preference, playing as though it was real life makes me sometimes not score the loliest character. I’m drawn toward moeblobs, but not toward illegal acts. I did get Ai as my end girl in Hourglass of Summer, but there’s no H in Hourglass of Summer, Ai was the same age as me, she wouldn’t be mistaken for a loli despite her (comparatively) flat chest, and I tend to gravitate toward Childhood Friend Wins endings in anime.

In Hinano’s game, this method got me the Natsuko ending on my first and only playthrough - Natsuko being the loliest girl, I tried to stay “just friends” with her because I’m not a pedobear in real life - and that turned out to be the right thing to do.

Wait, no actual forehead kiss CG?

Fixed.

The importance of everyday and other lessons

July 31st, 2008

Following the heartful outpouring of encouragement and advice after my breakup with Jason, I hesitated somewhat before writing a post in which I acknowledged the said advice. After all, the 90 minutes it takes to write a proper thank you post could be spent completing a comic page with my newfound “speed over quality” approach. But it’s good manners to acknowledge help.

Author: I know I promised you comments, but pointificate on my own blog is much easier. Make sure you read the Shawn’s LJ entry linked therein and appreciate just how much the world was stacked against you two working together. Feel free to feel bad though, a failure is a failure. But become stronger and wiser as a result.

What actually stood out the most was your quoting of the Penny Arcade creator, “Draw like crazy every day and never miss a deadline.” The key point is everyday. I don’t think a master guitarist like Eric Johnson ever misses a day of practice. If I have time to exercise every day, I should have time to work on Miao Diary every day.

And so it shall be.

I have given up fansub watching, not because I want to follow the law like Steven, but because I need the time. As awesome as Nabari and Slayers Revolution are, every episode I watch is one-third of a page I could be doing. I’ll subsist on a reduced anime diet of blogs, DVDs and comics (such as Lucky Star and Koi Cupid). Slayers Revolution is bound to be licensed anyway. I have given up video games. Culdcept Saga’s story mode, Mana-Khemia, Soul Nomad, and Neverwinter Nights 2 are on indefinite hold.


Sorry, Sakuya!

I have given up my guitar; my skills will decay without daily practice, but I was never good at it anyway and it takes up too much time.

Jason said that reading is key to becoming an effective writer, and he of all people should know. I will start reading novels every day, mostly material with relation to the Miao Diary project: I have lined up Beverly Donofrio’s “Thank You, Lucky Stars” (a cute story about fifth-grade girls and boys), Katherine Paterson’s “Bridge to Terabithia” (which I have read many times before, but is the new template for Miao Diary, replacing Cannon-Sensei Tobashisugi), the tragic visual novel “Kana - Little Sister” (the one exception to my new no games policy), and Nahoko Uehashi’s “Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit” (the basis of the acclaimed anime series).

Samukun: The fact is, it’s better to have a flawed product than no product at all, and if he keeps slowing himself to correct minute details, it’ll inevitably just slow him down too much.

Very true.


This rings so true it hurts.

It’s frightening how much faster I progress when I let mistakes slide. There isn’t time for the passion and the momentum to subside. The end goal remains clear in my mind.

Do you know why Eric Johnson is less popular than a lesser guitarist (”lesser” in this case meaning “better than 90% of all professional electric guitarists” instead of “better than 99.9% of all professional electric guitarists” like Eric) such as Joe Satriani? It’s because Eric Johnson is a ridiculous perfectionist who will take three-year extensions on his studio albums’ release dates to make them better. And while his albums are definitely the best guitar music in the world, you might lose interest if you had to wait nine years (NINE YEARS!) between Venus Isle and Bloom. Haruhi Suzumiya fans, don’t start complaining about the lack of a second season until 2015.

Ben: You’d probably be better off with a project where you didn’t have to worry about the height of a train wheel or the back of a wall piano extending to the ground. What you need, as you’ve said, is to work on your speed and your consistency. A good way to do this is to set expectations for yourself, and don’t go back and do re-edits, something the HC project required. I think you would benefit greatly from doing a 3 pages a week and posting them, individually, on a fixed schedule, something like a MWF. Readers on the web are used to delayed gratification on their posts, almost every web comic works in that fashion.

I agree about not worrying about train wheels so much. And once I start creating finished pages, I will target three pages per week. But for a quick sketched series like Miao Diary, I would like to present complete ideas when I post.

Fetjuel: Start small start small start small. There’s a reason Soft Landing still doesn’t exist after five years: we were both trying to create our perfect game, the greatest game we could possibly imagine, for our first project ever.

Pay very close attention to what Fetjuel does, because to sustain an ambitious amateur project for as long as he has, requires determination and has granted him much wisdom. And his words in this case are wise. The simpler Miao Diary is a much better starting project than Heart’s Content, as it will allow me to feel like I am accomplishing something on the way to acquiring a professional level. And just because Heart’s Content failed doesn’t mean it was a waste of time for me (for Jason it might have been a waste, and for that I’m terribly sorry). Just as Fetjuel’s Paraplu project uses a lot of the code he wrote for Soft Landing, I will make good use of the lessons I learned while struggling with Heart’s Content.

Dorian: I’m a little sad that this happened, but I understand it. All too well, actually. It’s embarrassing and depressing when this happens, but it’s good to see that you’re putting a positive spin on things.

It’s good to feel miserable once in a while. It’s a sign of learning your lesson. But you have to put it behind you eventually, because it’s hard to move forward when you’re miserable.

To the people not mentioned here, thank you for your encouragement and advice. I can promise to do my best to not disappoint you, but a steady flow of comic pages will speak much louder than any promise.

I have to get back to my novels and my drawing board now.

Miao Diary (Chapter 1, Part 1)

July 30th, 2008

I’ll have a post later on to thank all the people who offered support and encouragement following the end of mine and Jason’s partnership. But the best way for me to respond to all that encouragement is by showing quick and steady progress on Miao Diary.

From last week:

Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5

And now, the continuation:

Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14

I made more than twice as many Miao Diary pages in under three weeks than there were Heart’s Content pages in the last seven months. Jason would be proud. He would also be facepalming.